williamson the only deserving MOTM. standing out for disgraceful performances were gouffran, santon, colo, ameobi and sissoko, with the lattermost being the worst IMO. hell, everyone was very poor today. i still can’t tell what kind of formation we are playing.

one thing on pardew is what the hell was ameobi doing on the pitch? we are already incapable of moving up the pitch as a unit so having shola trod around on the middle of the park because he’s too slow to be involved in any kind of counter-attack is nearly as bad as being a man down. anyway, it’s over. we better get it right v City.

Does anyone else think that Remy is so overhyped and the only reason we need him so badly is because our other st’s are totally useless. I honesltly think we have one of the worst strikeforce’s in the league. On Remy he has great finishing technique but that is all i can see that he has???? When he first came i thought he had bags of pace which is what we have needed since the bellamy days yet he is actually average and the only defender i have actually seen him go by is mertasacker which i could do tbh. He is poor with his back to goal and cant hold the play up well so the only position he should be in is a wide left position which he played today. For this i would rather have a trcky winger who can provide for the central st (even though we do not have one capable of mentioning) that can also chip in with goals. We are in desperate need of a striker that can lead the line and hold play up under pressure as Ameobi would be lucky to play for a lower championship team let alone a team in top half of prem!!

Berahinos happy look is more of relief because he is one very average player.

Jesper – the attacking FB idea is great but has to be done well or not at all.You cant just have pace and the ability to cross, you also need discernment as to when it is a good idea, awareness and co-operation with the guy ahead of you who overlaps or the CB who is willing to plug the gap you leave behind. Debuchy seems to be getting that with Willo and Sissoko, Santon with Colo and Gouffran. However, and I realise I am starting to be a broken record on him, Santon dtends to drift back randomly aafter he goes forward, leaving gouffran back or Colo pulled wide left for large parts of the game.

We will miss Debuchy as a player. We’ll miss Collo as an organiser. I think Mbiwa is as good a player but when Collo has not played we have not been organised at the back. Willo has never been the organiser even when playing with Staylor. For me, we got a bit disorganised in the back four with Debuchy & Collo off and that was the root cause of the penalty. …someone needs to step up.

Impact sub after 20mins? Haha says it all mate, it’s not HBA fan club as you put it but rather a Shola should never be playing for us!! Welshmag says 1 poor performance but Stoke we were shocking until the reds came and arsenal we created nothing!! Remy is not an out and out cf better coming in off the wing, only problem with that is we need to employ babysitters for fullbacks!!

Our Toon When did I say shola should start in front of him? HBA isn’t a CF and should be no where the middle of the pitch because he’s woeful there HBA on the bench doesn’t highlight how bad Shola is it highlights the fact we need a proper CAM Neither Shola or HBA should be playing there but over the last 3 months shola has been far more effective in the hole than Benny ever has been

Sissoko flatters to deceive. His bursting strides forward usually end in nothing. Not having a proper poaching striker in the right place, and poor service to the front is costing us, we are effectively toothless. This is a problem that as been coming for some time. The only time we have a threat is when Hatem comes in from the right or just behind the strikers. We need to get him and cisse on to push defenders back to their goal, presently anything going into the box is cut out easily or there is nobody there to receive it.

Jesp – I don’t believe we have quality squad depth. Yes it’s better than it was, but still not brilliant. HBA has been hot and cold this season, cisse – mainly cold and yanga is our only true defensive quality. With Colo out, I think we will be ok with willo and yanga as they play very well together. But we need reinforcements this window big time. If Cabaye is out, we lack creativity.

However, we CANT surely moan too much. We are still in excellent shape in the league and nobody could’ve expected us to take points off the likes of man u, spurs etc, let alone the amount of points we have won.

Still much prefer where we are now, to where we were at last season. HWTL

France and Toulouse both used Sissoko as a holding midfielder and not often as an attacking midfielder or winger, infact the French manager laughed when the topic of Sissokos new position came up in a press conference!! We consistently play players out of position!! I think his work rate defensively and his lack of passing crossing and everything else is pretty apparent that the lad is a holding midfielder!! Yaya Toure started as a holding midfielder but then matured into a box to box beast, Sissoko can do the same but needs to be utilised in the middle holding!!

Torq toon

We haven’t used our squad at all during these games and that is down to management, the last time Shola started a game away from home we lost horribly to a striker less Swansea!! Although I think santon is a better fullback than haidara the switch today would have been good as well as MYM and HBA, Marv is also waiting for a game!! Players are there to use!!

tads – put Remy on the right and nothing will change with his game I think. I dont care if Sissoko played on the right and fancies himself as CAM, he is a box-to-box with his striding pace and has a lousy touch with a terrible eye for a final ball. We currently do not lay any strikers who wait on the defensive line to spring the offside trap. Where players think they should play is often contradicted by what they display when they are on the pitch. For me Anita around the middle would be better all day long than Sissoko on the right or AM

toonarmydownsouth – I was not speaking about which positions the stated players have played in, in the past.

I was speaking about which position they are natural in – arguably should be playing in.

Remy drifts out of the left quite often, you can see that is natural for him.

Sissoko obviously does not have the decision making to be an attacking midfielder; although as others have said, he has been putting in great performances on the right wing, but I believe that is mostly down to his covering work for Debuchy, more than him being a ‘natural,’ right winger.

Gouffran playing on the left side of the attack is not the same as playing as a left winger, and as I said previously, that is where I think Remy should be playing – they cannot both play there…

”Cabaye has said he like’s playing just in front of the back four, it’s the fans asking for him to be more attacking” which is not in contradiction with what I was stating.

I am sorry you feel embarrassed by the fellow fans of your club… perhaps you should try get more into the camaraderie of the other fans…

If you feel certain fans do not have the same knowledge of the club as you, perhaps you could find some element of respect for the fact they are on your side, and want the same things for the club – maybe just via a different method.

I didn’t say HBA should play upfront he should play RW, give the opposition something to think about rather than worry about what HBA won’t odd defensively!! 451 mate it’s simple, that way Shola doesn’t start….worked for last 2 away games but today he changed it!! Was fearful of a caretaker managers team rather than concentrating on this on teams strengths!! Coutinho is the closest example I can give to HBA the lad doesn’t track back but is a genius on the ball, yet Brendan Rodgers plays Coutinho away to Citeh and every other game because he doesn’t believe in babysitting!! We need a serious rethink on how best to utilise our attacking players

Cabaye does prefer to sit back in midfield but we have no other options as he is currently the only in the starting 11 who can create something!! Hence playing in an attacking position

It was a bad day at the office and I’m gutted we lost a game I thought we could win. But let’s get a sense of perspective we’ve been quite fortunate with injuries so far and Mbiwa can cover for Colo in fact some of you think he should be playing anyway. We’ve got fullback cover with |Dummett and Haidara. I thought it was brave of Pardew to pick Shola to try and attack unfortunately Shola decided to have one of his anonymous days and in hindsight Anita and 4 5 1 would have been a better option. Also HBA didn’t pull up any trees when he came on in fact he missed a good chance at the death.

Lots of changes for the Cardiff game, so some of the first teamers like Gouffran can finally have a rest. Krul in goal. Dummett, M’biwa, Taylor and Haidara at the back. HBA, Tiote, Anita, Gutierrez and Marveaux in the middle with Cisse up front. Bench: Elliot, Remy, Bigirimanna, Williamson, Obertan, S. Ameobi and Sissoko.

Ancientcoptic Read the last 4-5 topics which the general input is pardew out Debuchy’s sh1t shola’s sh1t sissoko’s sh1t How is that not embarrassing

As for there natural positions, how do you know there natural positions, your basing that solely on your opinion, on what you think there attributes are suited to based on the 90 minutes you see The players and coaching staff know there game a hell of a lot better than you or me think we do

Agreed. Our squad depth is better than last season but it is probably a 7th-10th squad and defo not a top 6 squad as it stands.

I doubt whether any player other than Debuchy and Cabaye and possibly Krul and Tiote would be in the first 15 of a top four side so talk of us qualifying for the CL is pie in the sky.

Our most creative player, Cabaye, rarely stamps himself on a game and Anita, Sissoko and Gouffran offer more in effort than they do in creativity. This is why we create few chances and rarely score more than two. HBA is so inconsistent he can’t be relied on.

Until we sign a really creative midfield player I think we’ll struggle to challenge for top 6 never mind top 4.

66 points should be the target to match the first half of the season. We lost our first game and drew the second so 33 points is a realistic ambition for the second half as long as our form doesn’t take a turn for the worst from here

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My latest bone scans and CAT scans were completed this week and I met with my oncologist Dr. Dhruva to go over the results.

The stage four cancer remains stabilized and hasn't spread over the last six months.

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in early 2017 after being in remission for six years.

There is no cure for stage 4 cancer - but there are treatments which attempt to prolong life.

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